Modern Mechanix

Gardener Creates Novel Treetop Menagerie (Jul, 1934)

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Gardener Creates Novel Treetop Menagerie

Radium Medicine Is Condemned (Jan, 1933)

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Radium Medicine Is Condemned

AN AUTHORITATIVE statement of the probable uselessness and even more probable dangers of drinking radioactive waters or taking other medicines supposed to contain radium has been issued by the American Medical Association. Evidence of helpfulness of water is not available.

IT DOESN’T HURT A BIT (Jan, 1929)

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IT DOESN’T HURT A BIT

Dr. M. E. Moby, of Los Angeles, found his canine patient more unconcerned than a human patient when he used his dentist’s drill to make way for a new inlay.

PLANE TALK (Feb, 1931)

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PLANE TALK

Edited by MAJOR H. H. ARNOLD

Major Arnold, who conducts this monthly department, discusses aviation from a background of more than twenty years’ experience. This month he takes up some of the most recent developments in the conquest of the air and describes the methods used in marking the aerial highways.

A New Patent High Speed Gun Mounting For Aircraft

THIS gun mounting, has been designed to fulfill the latest operational requirements of military and naval aircraft and to overcome the extreme difficulties experienced with the ring type mounting when used at maximum speeds on high-performance aircraft. A greater firing area than has hitherto been obtainable is secured by the new gun mounting, now making it possible to fire directly astern or vertically upwards and downwards, as well as over the usual areas, including that forward and above the upper wings. Having few moving parts and being definitely locked in position, the new gun mounting enables the gunner to hold a much steadier aim.

The employment of the new gun mounting allows a saving of approximately fifteen pounds in weight, and being more compact, the space in the gunner’s cockpit is not restricted to the same extent as has previously been the case. This saving is additionally increased, for, when not in use, the gun and mounting are locked in a concealed position within the top fuselage fairing astern of the gunner’s cockpit, which is thus left entirely clear of obstruction by these fittings.

To conclude it might be mentioned that much is gained in the way of overcoming parasite air-resistance by the more symmetrical shape and design of the gun mounting, and the concealment of the gun.

Many Types of Markers to Aid Day and Night Flying

EVERY day that passes sees additional landmarks identified to guide the passing aviator. At night the most important of our airways are marked every 5 to 25 miles with beacons. These beacons have distinctive beams and are so placed that regardless of the character of the terrain flown over, the airman has always at least one light in sight. Beacons are usually painted brilliant colors and are lettered and numbered for identification. Towns and cities are usually identified with their names painted in large letters on buildings. Airdromes have their names in huge letters where they may readily be seen, and recently work has been started toward painting the names of the most important automobile routes along highways as shown above. Buildings along airways also have their roofs painted in distinctive color schemes to aid daylight flying.

Here’s the First Photo Ever Taken From a Plane in Flight

SITTING on a frail cane-bottomed seat, his feet crossed underneath, while flying at 30 miles an hour in a wobbling airplane whose safety few trusted, Maj. H. A. Erickson 20 years ago made what is believed to be the first photograph ever taken from an airplane in flight. Major Erickson found the picture recently among his keepsakes.

With Charles K. Hamilton, then a famous pilot, Major Erickson took off from what is now a fairway on the Coronado Golf club and for 20 minutes flew at an altitude of 500 feet over San Diego bay and the nearby Pacific Ocean. With a German bellows camera, Erickson shot the now famous picture. It revealed a portion of the San Diego waterfront. During the war the original negative, which measured 3-1/4 by 4-1/4 inches, was stolen. The only print remaining was lost 12 years until Erickson found it recently.

Where today flying photographers “work” in enclosed planes that fly 150 miles an hour, Erickson made the first picture while sitting in the 30-mile-an-hour wind blast, directly in front of the pusher-type propeller.

Retractable Radiator Adds Speed

ONE of the most interesting construction details on any of the airplanes at the Chicago races was that on one of the foreign entries—a retractable radiator. As shown at the right, the radiator, when retracted, makes a perfect stream line for the bottom of the fuselage and aids materially in increasing the speed. However, when the weather is hot or when the engine turns at full throttle the radiator is lowered to obtain the maximum cooling effect. The advantages of such a radiator on military and transport planes are obvious.

Sortie of the Recent Developments in the Aircraft Industry

THE roar of the exhaust of ever more powerful airplane engines has been increasing steadily until it has almost passed beyond the nuisance stage with those who are brought into close touch with aircraft, while to military and naval aviation it is a serious limitation on operations, as it proves an absolute barrier to surprise maneuvers. Therefore the invention of Miss Eldorado Jones, the first successful exhaust muffler for airplane engines, has been welcomed with open arms by the aviation industry. Her device, which resembles in appearance an ordinary Ford muffler, consists of a series of small pinwheels which “chew up” the sound waves and retard the passage of exhaust gases without creating undue back pressure upon the engine.

Flying Flivvers Receive the Attention of Many Designers

The “Flying Bathtub” is a glider with a detachable power plant which may be installed or removed in twenty, minutes. In tests with a 40 h.p. Salmson motor the ship took off in 20 feet and climbed to 22,000 feet in twenty minutes. It has a top speed of nearly 100 miles an hour and uses less than three gallons of gas an hour. Large scale production is planned for this ship which will sell for less than $1,000.

Another step in the same direction is the interchangeable fuselage of the glider designed by A. B. Green, of Los Angeles. In this job the lifting surfaces may be changed from the glider fuselage to the powered fuselage in a very few minutes.

William Nelsch, of St. Louis, has invented a real “Flying Flivver” which may be driven about the streets the same as an auto. It has an air and ground speed of 75 miles an hour. The wings may be folded up while the propeller is encased in a protection screening for safety on the ground.

H. Alfaro, a Cleveland engineer, has perfected a glider motor weighing less than fifty pounds which develops 27 h.p. The flying rowboat, designed by Frank Burt, of Clemonton, N. J., failed to rise from the water with its motorcycle engine, although it did 35 miles per hour on the surface.

1 part in 10,000,000,000 (Oct, 1954)

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1 part in 10,000,000,000

To make the most of their revolutionary invention, the transistor, Bell Laboratories scientists needed ultra-pure germanium.

The scientists solved their problem by devising a radically new refining process. The germanium it yields may well be the purest commercially produced material on earth.

It has only one part in ten billion of impurities harmful to transistor performance. That’s about the same as a pinch of salt in 35 freight cars of sugar.

Yet the new process, Zone Refining, is simple in principle. An ingot of germanium is drawn through a series of induction-heating coils that melt narrow zones of the substance. Since impurities are more soluble in the liquid than in the solid form of a metal, the molten zones collect impurities. They are swept along by the successive melts to the end of the ingot, which is finally cut off.

Zone Refining is also being applied to the ultra-purification of other materials useful to telephony. This single achievement of research at Bell Telephone Laboratories clears the way for many advances in America’s telephone system.

BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES
IMPROVING AMERICA’S TELEPHONE SERVICE PROVIDES CAREERS FOR CREATIVE MEN IN SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL FIELDS

Handy Wristholder for Pencil (Sep, 1931)

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Handy Wristholder for Pencil

FOUNTAIN pens and pencils are made quickly and easily accessible by the use of a new wrist pencil and pen holder now on the market.

WHAT IS YOUR SEX QUOTIENT (Jan, 1964)

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Some of these questions are really bizzare. Why would one assume that a fear of peeing in public means you’re gay? And what’s with #3?

“It is possible for a woman to enjoy satisfactory sex relations after surgical removal of her clitoris.”

How is that at all helpful? It’s possible for you to have half your brain removed and have no real impairments. It’s just not terribly likely.

WHAT IS YOUR SEX QUOTIENT

BY taking this test, you can measure your sex knowledge. Check whether the answer to each statement should be True or False. Compare your answers with the correct answers below. Give yourself 10 points for each correct answer and add the results. Your final score is your S.Q.

A score of less than 50 indicates inadequate knowledge; 50 to 60 equals good; 70 or 80 equals excellent; 90 or above equals unusually superior.

1. No marriage can succeed if the wife does not achieve orgasm in almost every act of intercourse.
2. During sex relations, the heart is affected only by the physical activity.
3. It is possible for a woman to enjoy satisfactory sex relations after surgical removal of her clitoris.
4. Men who are afraid to urinate in public toilets are not necessarily homosexual.
5. Almost any inflammation of the pelvic organs can cause a woman to become sterile.
6. The fastest test for pregnancy is the so-called “rabbit test.
7. It is possible to collect and store male sperm safely and permanently.
8. Women are more responsive sexually at the time of ovulation.
9. Parents should begin their children’s sex education at puberty.
10. Homosexual acts can spread venereal disease.

ANSWERS:

1. false – Many women can enjoy sexual intercourse without a specific climax.
2. false – The emotional and psychological tension surrounding sexual activity has a powerful effect on the heart.
3. true – The nerve fibers responsible for sexual sensation can still function after removal of the clitoris.
4. true – Such fears can arise from many kinds of tensions.
5. true – Infections can cause blocking of the fallopian tubes or cervix. 6. false – Animal tests for pregnancy require a waiting period. Others do not.
7. true – Male sperm can be (and is) stored safely and indefinitely by deep-freezing.
8. false – If anything, studies show that women are more responsive around their menstrual period.
9. false – Sex education should begin as soon as the child is old enough to ask questions.
10. true – Any intimacy, especially if it involves mucous membranes, can spread venereal disease.

“31,000 student hours later, we still love Apple Computer” (Sep, 1979)

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When I was kid I had a subscription where I would get disks full of software from MECC every month. I loved their stuff.

“31,000 student hours later, we still love Apple Computer”

- Dr. Kenneth Brumbaugh. Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium

When the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium recommended Apple Computer to the state’s school districts—well, it started something big.

Today there are hundreds of Apple Computers in use in 35% of Minnesota’s elementary and secondary schools, and nearly all of the colleges and universities in the state. Most communicate with the Consortium’s CYBER 73 mainframe in a state-wide educational computer network.

The educational computer Dr. Kenneth Brumbaugh, Manager of User Services, heads the team responsible for supporting instructional computing.

“MECC evaluated personal computers and chose Apple because it was the one that met our rather rigid specifications.

“And, we employ a conventional timesharing system, with remote terminals. But that means high phone costs. And limited user access. Apple solves that. It gives schools a stand-alone computer for about the price of a terminal. Also, Apple interfaces directly to our CYBER, so we can download programs to any Apple in the state. That also means we can serve as the communication link for the wealth of new programs student: and teachers are writing themselves. For us, Apple is an excellent educational computer.

The kids-and the teachers-love Apple “One big reason we chose Apple is that it is so easy to program. Now, with Pascal, Apple can provide even more programming flexibility.

“For example, MECC has written a note-recognition program to help teach music that takes advantage of Apple’s unique built-in speaker. And Apple’s color graphics make programs far more interesting than conventional black and white terminals can.

“To date, we’ve logged over 31,000 student hours on Apple Computers. We even have schools trying out computers for home study. The kids love the Apple. And so do the teachers.”

Is Apple for you?

For the name and address of your local Apple dealer and your free copy of Apple’s new Curriculum Materials Kit, call 800-538-9696l In California, 800-662-9238. Or write us at

10260 Bandley Drive, Cupertino, CA 95014.

A Rocket Voyage to the Moon (Sep, 1929)

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A Rocket Voyage to the Moon

NO LONGER a fantasy, a rocket to the moon may be fired before another 12 months have passed. Discussion of interplanetary navigation reached a climax recently in a meeting of European scientists in the convention of the Societie Astronomique of France where the Hirach-Pelterie prize of 5,000 francs was awarded to Professor Herman Oberth for researches in this field.

Professor Oberth has developed what is considered to be an entirely feasible plan for sending a rocket to the moon. The problem up to this time has been how to escape the terrestrial attraction of gravity and yet not make the experiment prohibitive by an excess load of fuel. This has been solved by constructing a double-tubed rocket emitting gases at a speed of 2,500 miles a second.

4-WAY PROTECTION (Jun, 1949)

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This would be much more interesting if it was an ad for condoms.

4-WAY PROTECTION

OPALINE protects your motor 4 ways

1. CLEANS — Keeps your motor clean as a whistle — combats carbon, sludge, lacquer, corrosive acids.

2. SEALS — Improves piston seal to save gasoline, save oil and improve power.

3. COOLS — Draws searing heat away from engine parts.

4. LUBRICATES — Tough protective film reduces wear and saves repair expense.

PREMIUM SINCLAIR OPALINE MOTOR OIL

SUPER-REFINED BY THE PHETONE PROCESS

SPECTACULARS (Feb, 1947)

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SPECTACULARS

The Southerner who made good by making New Yorkers look up expects the whole postwar world to go sign-happy in the Times Square manner

The sky’s no limit to Douglas Leigh, today’s Lamplighter of Broadway and King of the Spectaculars, those illuminated, animated supersigns that are catching on across the country. Boy Wonder of the illuminated sign business in the early 1930′s (he’s only 36 now), Alabama-born Leigh has built several striking spectaculars since the war and plans many more, but even he will have to go some if he ever surpasses the imagination and daring that produced his new flying spectaculars..

Inspiration for the skyriding spectaculars, 265-foot dirigibles that flash sales messages in the night to millions of people, came to Leigh while he still was in the Navy. After the war, he took the idea to the Navy and surplus-property authorities. Both were pleased, since an airship is a trifle harder to dispose of than a parka and it had begun to appear likely that surplus dirigibles might be dismantled and their rubber turned into raincoats. Leigh bought seven of the ships, to the Navy’s delight, since he keeps them in fine flying fettle and ready on call for the Navy.

Electric lights on each side of the Leigh dirigibles carry a continuous message, or running sign. The signs are transmitted the same way as are running signs and electric news strips on the ground. Letters of a message are perforated on a tape before a flight. In making the display, the tape is drawn over a drum containing circuit breakers keyed to each cluster of lights (see pages 36, 37) in the sign. Each perforation closes a circuit and causes the lights, in reading sequence, to spell out the words of the message.

Ordinary light bulbs and sockets would mean a lot of weight, however, so Fred Kerwer, Leigh’s chief engineer, prescribed 10 Christmas-tree bulbs of 2.8 volts each in clusters 18 inches in diameter, each cluster having a single tubular socket into which the lamps were fitted and connections soldered. Each cluster appears as one light at 1.000 feet. Some engineers doubted that running signs would be clearly visible from high in the air, but Leigh’s messages are readable easily at 2% miles, and the sign is visible at five miles. Each side of the 170-foot sign contains 5,000 of the small bulbs, arranged to carry letters 27 feet tall. Only 15 out of 10,000 lamps in the flying spectacular went bad in the course of two weeks’ service.

Leigh’s latest land spectacular for Times Square contains 15,000 bulbs and 1,000 feet of neon. It shows Mr. Peanut as a magician. But the ground can’t hold Leigh any more: recently he has been seen casting covetous glances at the fair white surface of the moon.

CHINESE BUILD WEDDING CAR (Jan, 1929)

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CHINESE BUILD WEDDING CAR
IN CHINA no marriage is considered to have been fittingly solemnized until the bride and groom have ridden at the head of the wedding procession in an automobile similar to the one shown below. The special “gingerbread” body, decorated with gold leaf and hanging tinsel, represents an investment of about $5,000.

Untransistorized Digital Differential Analyzer? (Nov, 1956)

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Untransistorized Digital Differential Analyzer?

The abacus has qualities much sought after in today’s electronic computers: ease and reliability of operation, low investment, and minimal maintenance. These are qualities found in the unique electronic digital computation equipment created by Litton Industries. The military and industrial applications for this equipment are many.

LITTON INDUSTRIES
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA
Plants and Laboratories in California, Maryland, Indiana and New York

DIGITAL COMPUTERS AND CONTROLS – RADAR AND COUNTERMEASURES – INERTIAL GUIDANCE – MICROWAVE TOWER TUBES – PRECISION COMPONENTS – AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING SYSTEMS – SERVO MECHANISMS – SPACE SIMULATION RESEARCH

It Reknits Hosiery (Nov, 1928)

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It Reknits Hosiery

Run-Repairer Is Worth Millions

GASP of dismay bursts from the lips of the wife. The husband looks up startled. Only-some extraordinary catastrophe could call forth such a devastating outburst from the little woman who usually is so placid, refined and self-possessed. She continues.

“Look at that stocking! Hopelessly ruined! Just bought today. Six dollars for the pair and now I catch them on a splinter on that chair I’ve asked you again and again to fix. Why doesn’t somebody invent a machine to repair the runs in stockings?” That speech was made at least sixty million times in the United States last year. With stockings becoming more and more sheer, and skirts shorter and shorter, runs have been taking on an ever-increasing importance.

SUCH is the situation which influenced two brothers to refuse a million dollars each for the patent rights to an electric machine which they have invented to repair the broken stitches in silk hosiery. Instead they have accepted a substantial number of shares in a new corporation to be organized by the Gotham Company for the sole purpose of repairing runs. The value placed on the invention, upon which six patents are pending, is between 15,000,000 and 20,000,000 dollars.

Repairing the ladder-like runs in stockings is fascinating. A latch needle is used; this is a hook-like device, which by proper movement is converted automatically into an eye, offering no sharp hooks or points to tear out or unravel additional stitches. With the new Knitbac machine it is all done electrically. You insert the needle in the last perfect loop of the broken thread. This loop hangs on the needle’s shank, the thread to be looped being placed in the hook. As the needle descends, the loop on the shank comes up and forces the latch closed, making an. eye. It then folds down until the thread caught in the hook is pulled through the fabric. As the needle rises again, the hook opens and the process is continued until the original thread is looped back into the fabric. When next the stocking is worn, the most critical observer will fail to see that it ever has been repaired.

Lest the stocking should slip when being repaired, a toothed gauge holds it firmly in place. Should a mistake be made an automatic brake stops the operation. It is said that by the use of the machine, runs in stockings may be repaired ten or twelve times as rapidly as by the old hand method.

Samuel and William Leavin are the inventors. As proprietors of a little shop selling novelty hosiery, they worked out an idea for a machine, convinced the Gotham Company of its value, and were financed for five years while they perfected their device.

THE AIRLINES MUST COME DOWN TO EARTH (Feb, 1947)

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THE AIRLINES MUST COME DOWN TO EARTH

There’s something wrong with aviation. Suddenly, after making an amazing war record, the airlines have found themselves deluged with criticism. Air travelers, weary of delays and irritated by uncertain arrivals of planes, have begun to object. And their objections have been frequently and vociferously expressed. To date, the airlines have not been able to do much to help themselves. Keeping passengers sitting in airplanes for an hour, or two, or more, waiting to take off, has not made friends for the lines; nor has the business of “stacking” planes for long periods above congested terminals.

A letter to a New York newspaper recently summed up the critic’s viewpoint thus: “Very few people live in a state of urgency that requires them to travel 500 miles an hour, and microscopic fractions of those who do can afford to trifle with the probability of being drastically late or set down in Framingham, Massachusetts, instead of Washington, D. C.

“The flying machine is tolerably safe, and that is taken for granted. It isn’t at all reliable and it isn’t comfortable.”

The airlines are well aware of the growing criticism; and draw some comfort from the fact that they still have a host of friends, people who think that in spite of handicaps the lines are doing a marvelous job. What are those handicaps, and to what extent are they the airlines’ fault? How much of the science of design, of traffic control, of instrument flying is being put to work to solve the problem?

Let’s look at the facts.

Strikes, seasonal reduction in transcontinental travel, greater east-west demand in transatlantic travel than can be handled, and general business conditions during the last months of. 1946 have hurt the airlines. But the outlook isn’t pessimistic, either for the lines or for you as a present, or potential, air traveler.

They need critics—and equipment Specifically: The airlines have problems equal to, if not in excess of, any in American business today. They need criticism, from you and all other users, though they’ve had so much of it lately it’s not too welcome right now. But they need defense as well, and insofar as good, outspoken, defendants are concerned they’ve been at ceiling zero.

The big lines were a major part of the Air Transport Command, so they’re all familiar with instrument flying. As an example, Northwest Airlines’ planes, on their wartime run to Attu, were equipped with every safety instrument the Army, Navy, and the airlines were able to devise. Northwest’s pilots on this run (notorious the world over for its bad weather) made a record that is something for Northwest to be proud of. Two round trips a day, day and night, almost always “on instruments,” were routine. And yet, pilots on this difficult run turned in better operating results than were being maintained over continental United States.

Why were they able to make such a record? You know the answer: instruments. Radar instruments and others, plus landing facilities.

The war’s over now, but the instruments are still there, and they are still doing the same marvelous job. The trouble is there aren’t enough instruments and landing facilities to do the job the airlines would like. All lines and their pilots want the same facilities that helped on the Attu run, and others. They want them right away. But you want a new car . . . you want another apartment . . . you want a new coat of paint for your house. You can’t get them. Neither can the airlines get the fields, approaches, instruments you think they should have for your speed, convenience, and safety. And they can’t get them for the same reasons that you’re on the waiting list.

Take airports. Some cities have their airport so close to the heart of town you can get to it in a cab in five minutes. But there are often some pretty high buildings in these cities. So at a 1,000-foot ceiling, the minimum for landing with safety under these close-proximity conditions, only 60 percent of the airport’s actual facilities can be used.

We’d all like downtown airports!

Near by may be a city with even higher buildings, but with an airport so far out of town the buildings don’t count. Approaches can be made at a 500-foot ceiling and 98 percent of the airport’s facilities are utilized. Though everyone would like airports as close to the heart of town as possible, this isn’t practical for most large cities. We ought to have airports where landings can be made at 1,000-foot ceilings, and almost 100 percent of the time. This means instrument flying, the safest flying there is. Many pilots will tell you they feel safer, and have less concern for safety of their passengers, when flying fully on instrument. But you can’t get downtown in nothing flat, if you want a port with a 100-foot ceiling.

Here’s what Don King, vice president in charge of Northwest Airlines Orient routing, recently told an engineering group in Minneapolis: “During the war, flying in zero-zero weather was no uncommon thing. Now the problem is to adapt equipment and methods to the commercial airlines, and get approval of the Civil Aeronautics Board. The adaptation is not too simple, will take time, but it will be worked out.

“This will mean that if an air traveler is scheduled to reach Shanghai, China, at 9 a. m. next Friday, he will be quite certain of getting there right on time.”

King compared the airplane with the automobile. It wasn’t so many years ago that the automobile owner did little driving in bad weather, and put his car up in winter. In time these handicaps were overcome, so that driving an automobile came to be a year-round operation. Similarly, the airplane is developing to the point where it can be flown under any conditions.

Outstanding steps in the development of aircraft for all-weather flying he enumerated as increase in size and speeds; researches in ways to forestall formation of ice on propellers, wings and empennage; use of such navigational aids as radar, localizer beam, fan markers, and Bartow approach lights.

Airlines need trained personnel New planes? Planes with great improvements can be produced rapidly because it’s relatively easy to convert warplane research to peaceplane progress. Even so, it’s not nearly rapid enough to give the public what it expects from the airlines. People expect things of the airlines “yesterday.” That’s as much the lines’ fault as anyone’s. They get out some wonderful ads and publicity releases, and themselves believe too much of it.

New airports are, to be more than colloquial, a horse of a different color.

“We are not the masters of our own destiny insofar as airports are concerned,” one airline executive said recently. Sometimes the cities have no better facilities to offer and can’t enlarge what they have. Sometimes the co-operation between city, state, and Federal airline commissions and authorities is beset with all the handicaps such joint efforts involve. And currently the lack of building materials—and the price of construction when it is possible to proceed—affect airports just as they affect home building.

The personnel problem is tremendous.

The first half of this year domestic airlines alone carried 5,225,299 paying passengers, or 666,666 more than in all of 1944. Postwar traffic is 400 percent greater than wartime bookings. But the day of the 90-percent load factor is over. The airlines will have to be able to make money on normal load factors: somewhere between 65 and 75 percent.

Trouble is, the industry has been growing in a jack-and-the-beanstalk way. It can’t get people; those it can get, it can’t train as easily or as quickly as in the past. And they’re working under pressure at all times. Telephones can’t be installed fast enough to handle one-fifth of the calls for reservations. This telephone confusion is only one of the hazards to public relations that gives us all a reputation for interring the word courtesy in quicklime in an unmarked pauper’s grave. Building an airline is a two-way process, involving men and women as well as materials. To build an organization in a hurry can cause greater headaches than all your material and construction problems combined.

They’re getting down to business So what happens? And what’s done about it? Suddenly all the grouse and grumble you’re hearing from disgruntled passengers and writers is brought to a head by, let us say, a plethora of unfavorable articles. Everyone who travels regularly is having his trouble getting service anywhere. It’s only human to think of your troubles, and to forget someone else’s. When it became hard to buy a plane ticket, seasoned travelers simply said, “To hell with it,” and tried the trains. Airline traffic slumped. Winter, the airlines’ poorest season, set in and caused other setbacks. Under such circumstances, aviation stocks, good and bad, take a slide.

These are contingencies any sound business must expect. Hoping they’ll never come, but knowing they always happen elsewhere and in all probability always will, the airlines have to meet them in stride, just as automotive and other industries meet their occasional setbacks. The airlines have had to grow up. Fast, too fast, it may be true. But from now on the science of aviation will be the business of aviation. The airlines won’t be able to run to Uncle Sam or cry “uncle” to anyone else. They’ve got to get down to earth and meet competition on its own grounds—the grounds of good business.

It’s good business to have long-term fare-reduction aims, and to become as competitive with the railroads and steamship lines as possible. But it’s not good business to cut prices when airline costs, like those of anyone else, are increasing. No one expects automobiles to continue to advance in price indefinitely. Most automobile manufacturers expect that in a few years cars will be lower priced than ever before. But no automobile manufacturer is cutting his prices now; his business judgment dictates an absolutely necessary increase if he is to stay in business. The same is the seasoned judgment of the railroads and the shipping lines. The airlines should be asking for more instead of less at this particular stage of their rather meteoric existence. And all that’s said for air fares applies to freight as well.

The 21-passenger DC-3 and the 42-passenger DC-4 that have served so nobly are going to be too slow, too antiquated, and too costly to run in a few years if the airlines are to live up to all the fine claims they’re constantly making in advertisements and publicity releases. Major lines are writing every one of these planes off as fast as possible. In their time they’ve done yeoman duty. Yet some of these planes had been hopped up in seating capacity in 1946, with DC-3′s carrying 28 passengers, DC-4′s carrying 60. When you pack air passengers sardine fashion, they howl. They have every right to howl. Regardless of rates, people have been led to believe air transport is something special, as advanced in comfort as it is in speed.

Better planes are on order What planes will replace these old stalwarts that have been scientifically outmoded? On the shorter hops there will be planes like the twin-engined Martins, flying almost twice as fast as the still-standard DC-3s. They’ll carry more passengers per plane, all the instruments and other safety devices, including thermal de-icing. This means wing edges will be heated to eliminate an old hazard, icing on the take-off and in landing.

For the longer coast-to-coast and trans-Pacific runs lines will be using big planes like the Boeing Stratocruiser, the commercial plane that grew out of the famed warborn B-29, the Superfortress that shattered the Japanese mainland. Cabins will be pressurized, speed will be doubled. m All of these are improvements the airlines have to make. They have to move faster comfortwise and courtesywise than the railroads, because people expect more of the airlines than they do of the other carriers.

Any reference to the railroads suggests a parallel in aviation. Did it ever occur to you that trains run on instruments just as planes fly on them? The block system on railroads is not only an automatic wreck-preventer, but is also a system of control that can put six times as many trains over a division as could be routed through before the automatic signal systems were installed. And in aviation, instead of stacking plane above plane at 1,000-foot intervals when weather closes in, airline operators need, and will get, a block system of their own.

Slow take-offs can be as exasperating as stacking. It 1 often takes an hour to get a clear runway at crowded terminals. In the summer the passengers boil; in winter they freeze until the plane gets into the air. The answer to this? More runways. They’re coming, but they’re not coming nearly fast enough.

There are lots of personal and personnel items worth so much more attention than a meager paragraph that they are merely mentioned rather than enlarged on here. Reservations, flights without reservations, waiting time, “no-shows,” ground transportation, meals aboard, terminal restaurants: these are still big problems. The airlines haven’t been too bright in attacking some of them. Bear in mind: availability of facilities will be as big a factor in correcting faults as is the airlines’ desire to correct them,

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FLIGHT AND PROPULSION FACTORS IN A NUTSHELL
Above is one of the most interesting aviation charts that the industry has developed. It was prepared by engineers of the Douglas Aircraft Co., and it shows the principal factors you want to know in the consideration of flight.

At left, the various means of flight propulsion are illustrated. At top are curves involving significant characteristics of highspeed flight by airborne machines. The black one illustrates why present knowledge limits propeller-driven airplanes to 600 m.p.h. The second, or red, curve indicates the temperature problem caused by friction or aerodynamic heating. The third shows the abrupt increase in power requirements above 500 m.p.h.

The speed and Mach numbers are shown in a modified logarithmic scale for convenience. The expression “Mach numbers” refers to the relationship of a given speed of flight to the speed of sound, which is 761 m.p.h, at sea level and varies with temperatures at higher altitudes. Thus, at 40,000 feet, a Mach number 1 is equivalent to 663 m.p.h.

The location of each type of vehicle with respect to the speed scale is intended as a guide to show the operating speeds that can be expected for that type in the near future.

The dark, vertical band represents the trans-sonic region commonly referred to as critical speed—where high-speed airplanes at present are encountering many difficulties due to the fact that local air velocities around the fuselages and airfoils are exceeding the speed of sound and are causing compressibility. Indications are that once a speed of 800 or 900 m.p.h, is reached, these difficulties will begin to disappear and a new phase of supersonic flight will appear.

The airfoil illustration at the bottom of the chart indicates the trend in wing and tail surface sections as speed increases.

RADIO WAVES KEEP AIRSHIP ALOFT (Jan, 1929)

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RADIO WAVES KEEP AIRSHIP ALOFT
PROPELLERS and engines are not needed to fly the model airship of Bernays Johnson, who is shown with his craft in the photograph at the right. A powerful radio wave which neutralizes the pull of gravity is the force which keeps the ship aloft. Johnson experimented for ten years before he succeeded in discovering the principle of his anti-gravity waves. The ship can be controlled from within itself or from the ground. It was exhibited at the recent Boston radio exposition

Their words have wings as swift as light (Dec, 1930)

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Their words have wings as swift as light

An Advertisement of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company

We live and work as no other people have ever done. Our activities are pitched to the swiftness of the instantaneous age.

Whatever happens, wherever it happens and however it may affect you, you may know it immediately over the wires or the channels of the air that carry men’s words with the speed of light. Business and social life are free from the restrictions of time and distance— for practically any one, “anywhere, may at any time speak with any one, anywhere else.

The widespread and coordinated interests of the nation depend upon an intercourse that less than sixty years ago was not possible in a single community. This is the task of the telephone wires and cables of the Bell Telephone System—to make a single community of our vast, busy continent wherein a man in Los Angeles may talk with another in Baltimore or a friend in Europe as readily as with his neighbor. It is the work of the Bell Telephone System to enable friends, families and business associates to speak clearly and immediately with one another, wherever they may be. Its service is as helpful and accessible on a village street as in the largest cities.

To match the growing sweep and complexity of life in this country, to prepare the way for new accomplishments, the Bell System is constantly adding to its equipment and bettering its service.

To this end, its construction program for 1930 has been the largest in its history. This System at all times accepts its responsibility to forward the development and well-being of the nation.

INVENTIONS WANTED! (Oct, 1955)

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INVENTIONS WANTED!

LUMINOUS SIGN in railroad cars to announce approaching stations, eliminate mumbled calls. T. C. Alexander, Urbana. Ill.

GLOWING balls, racquets, nets, boundary lines so tennis lovers could romp in summer twilight. Bill Dong, Vancouver, Canada.

REPLACEABLE BLOTTER that fits in fountain pen cap and is ever-ready to absorb those blobs of ink. David Katsuki, Media, Pa.

FILTERED EXHAUST on autos to do away with threat of carbon monoxide poisoning, purify air. Arthur Stone, Oshaway, Canada.

The Amateur Cameraman (Feb, 1929)

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The Amateur Cameraman

Edited by WALTER D. KERST

AS AN associate member of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, Mr. Kerst is nationally known as an expert on the technical aspects of movie making. This month he discusses in this department several interesting ways in which the amateur movie maker can secure novel effects with his camera.

Night Shots Appeal to All Amateur Camera Men

THE amateur movie maker who does not use his camera for night scenes, particularly in the large cities, is missing a whole lot of fun and some mighty interesting films. Such scenes are easy to make and will help to round out reels of daylight shots of the same scenes.

Contrary to the usual supposition, an extremely fast lens and much special equipment is not usually necessary to produce very satisfactory night shots.

A fast lens will give one a wide range of subjects, but the normal f.3.5 lens can also be used under certain conditions. The fast f.1.5 lens will give more detail in the halftones than the f.3.5, but these can often be sacrificed where they are unimportant or entirely lacking as in shots of fireworks displays, search-lights sweeping the skies, etc. For the crowded streets of a large city, with its masses surging back and forth in the glare of the street lamps and theatrical signs, the f.1.5 gives remarkable detail.

It is preferable to shoot at normal speed rather than half speed so that the motion will not be accelerated. Remember that f.1.5 is a tremendous aperture and that the depth of focus is very slight. It is neces- sary to focus carefully on every shot. Do not include objects nearer than 15 or 20 feet to the lens when shooting at this opening or the results will be blurry. When using the f.3.5 for night work, a half speed of the film in the camera, or 8 exposures a second instead of 16, is desirable, so as to insure the fullest exposure possible.

Night work is by no means limited to the amateur in the large city. Particularly is this true in the winter, when the snow lies heavily on the ground. A corner in the little town, illuminated by the corner arc lamp, plus the bright reflection from the snow, will give some interesting silhouette effects. An f.1.5 lens and half speed of the film is necessary here. Do not attempt to get detail but place the subjects between the light source and the lens, so that they will be in silhouette.

Another interesting night shot is that of a camp-fire. The fire, with the figures silhouetted before it or placed at the side so that the glare of the flames will light up the faces, will be most realistic on the screen. With the f. 1.5 lens, camera at half speed, and panchromatic film, a good picture can be secured.

When using only the ordinary film, which is not sensitive to the red and yellow of the flames, it will be necessary to use one or two flares in a hole dug in the ground, directly beneath the fire. The flares burn a sufficient length of time for photographing a normal scene. The white smoke given off during their burning will add to the effect. Flares may be purchased at small cost.

SEEING IS BELIEVING

MANUFACTURERS of all kinds, particularly those of commodities that are too bulky or that cannot be shown by their salesmen to prospective buyers, are turning more and more to the 16 mm. film and projector as a selling agent. Take the manufacturers of farm tractors, for instance.

Heretofore the salesman had only his vocabulary and a few small pictures in a catalog, perhaps, with which to sell his prospect. It would hardly be practical for him to have a tractor shipped a great distance to help close a sale. But the next best thing to the tractor itself is a movie of it in operation, that can be run off for the prospective buyer right in his office, with a minimum of time and trouble. With his compact portable 16 mm. projector and a little daylight screen that fits in the case with the projector, he brings the most conclusive argument possible right to the buyer’s desk. It is needless to repeat that “seeing is believing,” and that this method of salesmanship is gaining great popularity in the industrial field. Also more concerns each day are using the 16 mm. movie as an advertising medium, as through it they can reach a tremendous field in a manner that cannot be surpassed in any other way. A few years hence will probably see a large number of concerns offering ]6 mm. subjects showing their products. The Gorham Silver Company recently inaugurated the distribution to amateurs of many 16 mm. prints of an excellent three-reel subject showing the making of their silver and bronze products. Other concerns are falling in line and it will not be long before all the manufacturers of America will be sold on the idea that “seeing is believing.”

FINE POINTS IN PROJECTION

In projecting your film, you have no doubt noticed that some scenes, denser than others, held back a lot of light from the screen, while others let a lot of light through to the screen. By using the rheostat control on your projector during the showing of the film, you can control the amount of light reaching the screen. When a dense scene appears, crowd all the light possible through the film by pushing the ammeter dial up to its full amount. Likewise, reduce it to its lowest reading when the filnt image is thin. By varying the projector light in this way, you can get a professional-like showing and one that is much better than if the projector is started and left alone until the reel has been run.

Here’s another little refinement. When letting up your screen and projector to get the proper size image to fit the screen, make the throw of the projector so that the edges of the picture all around will extend slightly over the black frame or border surrounding the screen. The black will “kill” the light from the picture on it, and the picture will frame very nicely on the screen.

Do not place the screen too low in relation to the eye-level of your audience and do not place the first row too near the screen. If you are using a glass bead screen, keep your audience confined to within a narrow angle in front of it. This is because quite a percentage of light is lost to those viewing a picture from an extreme angle with this type of screen. When using an aluminum screen the audience can be spread out at more of an angle, as this is a diffusing surface, and spreads the light consideraby..

MAKING MICRO MOVIES

A FASCINATING pastime for the amateur during the winter months is that of making microscopic movies. This type of shooting is increasing greatly among movie enthusiasts and they are getting no end of fun and education from it. An interesting use to which the microscope and the 16 mm. camera has been put recently is that of taking micro-movies of uncut diamonds so as to detect any flaws in the stones. This is far superior to taking still micro pictures as the stone can be turned in every conceivable way while being photographed, leaving no possibility for the flaw to escape the microscope’s all-seeing eye.

The illustration shows a 16 mm. camera attached to the microscope by means of the Microphote, or microscope adapter, the reflex focuser, for focusing the image sharply, and the microstage, holding in this case, a prepared slide with specimen. A strong light is directed by the reflecting mirror beneath the stage. This mirror throws the light upward, illuminating the subject on the slide.

Focusing is done through the eyepiece set near the front of the camera. The camera is equipped with the hand crank so that speed of the film may be controlled to obtain correct exposure. In making micro-movies the camera lens is removed, the lens of the microscope serving instead.

HINTS FOR TELEPHOTO WORK

Always use a filter when making tele-photo shots.

Make telephoto pictures only on days when the atmosphere is clear as crystal. Otherwise the haze in the air will destroy definition.

Always use a tripod when making shots with three, four and six inch lenses.

Try a closeup of a person with a four or six inch lens. Due to the distance of the camera, all camera consciousness and nervousness will disappear.

Be sure you do not use too long a tele-photo lens on subjects too near the camera. Remember that the field of view is narrowed considerably as you increase the focal length of the lens, and you are liable to eliminate an important part of the scene.

Under-expose telephoto shots slightly so as to increase the contrast.

Focus all telephoto shots accurately, as a slight error will mean the difference between success and failure.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q. How can I make a fade-out with my 16 mm. camera?—R. P. S.

A. This is done by manipulating the lens diaphragm, while shooting a scene. To get a fade-out or in of proper length it is necessary that the scene call for an exposure of f. 5.6 or more. To fade in, press the button with the hand held over the lens and the diaphragm set at f. 16. Slowly remove your hand and then slowly open the diaphragm stop to the proper setting for the scene. To fade out reverse the action, bringing the hand over the lens at the end so as to exclude all light from the film.

Q. How often should I oil my projector?— L. M. T.

A. Get in the habit of oiling your projector each time after running three 400-foot reels. Don’t squirt the oil into the holes but merely put a drop in each one. Too much oil is almost as detrimental as too little. It will get on your film and ruin it. Wipe sprockets, idlers and the film channel with a soft, lintless rag after oiling.

The Armstrongs see the country… (Aug, 1950)

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The Armstrongs see the country…

Like he always promised, Dad has bundled the family into the car to show them this great big country. There’s lots to see—and they’ve seen lots. Historic places, mountains, deserts—new things— strange things—and wonderful! Seems like they’re full up to here from looking.

Not everything is strange, though. Stores all the way across the country carry the products the Armstrongs know and recognize. And how do they recognize them? By brand name—the name the manufacturer gives a product so that people can tell it from any other.

Actually, the Armstrongs know, buying by brand name is the only way to get exactly what they want.

Brand names mean protection, too. By knowing brand names you make the manufacturer responsible for the quality of products that bear his brand name. Any manufacturer knows that if you find his products good, you will buy them. If not, you won’t—and the manufacturer will be forced out of business.

Brand names mean progress. Each manufacturer works to improve his products so his brand name stands for even better value and quality.

See that you get quality, protection and . . . exactly what you want, by buying products by brand names. You’ll find some of America’s finest brand names in ads right on the pages of this magazine.

Brand Names Foundation
INCORPORATED
119 West 57th Street, New York 19, N. Y.
A non-profit educational foundation

Bearings Move Todays World (Feb, 1947)

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Bearings Move Todays World

BIG AND LITTLE of precision-made steel balls that smooth the path of modern industry and transportation. The big sphere, six inches in diameter, will go into a mammoth hot-oil valve in a refinery. The smaller one (it’s in the eye of the needle) has a diameter of one millimeter. With two others of the same size it makes a bearing that is a vital part of the Norden bombsight.

LIKE PEAS IN A POT, precision-ground steel balls are dipped in a cleansing fluid before being assembled in bearings. Balls alone are not “bearings”; latter also include rings or “races.”

PERFECT BALANCE is essential in the bearing shown here under test. When the spindle is placed in its socket, the bearing must turn under the weight of a piece of wire the size of a pin.

GIANT RING or raceway is lowered in assembly of a tapered roller bearing of the type used in huge turbines and other industrial machinery. Whether as large as a night-club dance floor or as small as the head of a pin, a friction-reducing bearing performs a vital function in the machine of which it is a part.

TWO MANPOWER pulls a 400-ton steam locomotive from a dead stop on level track, thanks to roller bearings on the axles of the iron horse. Use of such bearings on locomotive axles has cut down starting resistance by 88 percent in comparison with old-fashioned plain bearings. An interesting new use for friction- NOT CHAMPAGNE BUBBLES, but tiny bearing balls dropping into a glass. A tablespoon holds 70,000 of them, and it takes 110,000 to weigh a pound. They are used in the Norden bombsight, where accuracy is so important that an error of 1/10,000 of an inch would cause a bomb to strike hundreds of yards off target.

reducing bearings has been reported from Los Angeles, where a building is being equipped to roll six inches in any direction when an earthquake puts the structure under stress. Each of the bearings employed in the earthquake-resisting building has an assembly weighing 600 pounds and supports a 250,000-pound load.

PRECISION OILING is an essential, too, in the manufacture of miniature bearings, which often must revolve at speeds exceeding 100,066 revolutions a minute. Here a rubber-gloved worker applies just one drop of oil to a hearing with a hypodermic needle.

GIANT FINGERTIP and needle in this magnified view show relative size of world’s smallest mass-produced bearing ball. It took five months to produce the first 1-1/2 ounces of these balls; later, at wartime production peak, one plant turned out 400,000 a week.

FOR BEST RESULTS: shave with Barbasol (Jun, 1949)

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FOR BEST RESULTS: shave with Barbasol

Cultivating? (the lady)
You can—with a Barbasol face!

To make a Tiger Lily purr—try Barbasol! With Barbasol you get closer, easier, more comfortable shaves that last all day. They’re faster, more sanitary, too! No brush, no lather, no rub-in. And Barbasol always leaves your face feeling really soft and smooth. So for “100 purr cent” shaving pleasure—try Barbasol, today!
Use it also for soothing relief of sunburn, windburn, insect bites, itching.

Preview of The 1957 National Automobile Show (Dec, 1956)

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Preview of The 1957 National Automobile Show

A million visitors are expected to attend this $10,000,000 exhibition of new cars and trucks.

By Roger Gregg

FOR THE first time in 16 years the motor car industry is getting together to stage an exhibition of its new models. This 42d edition of the famed National Automobile Show will be held December 8-16 in New York’s brand-new showplace, the Coliseum.

Two cavernous exhibition halls will display the 1957 cars and a separate floor will be devoted to trucks. It is estimated the whole package, including a Broadway-type musical show presented six times a day, will cost car-makers more than $10,000,000.

The time seldom has been more auspicious for such a show, last held in the fall of 1940. There were none during the war, of course. Then in the years after VE and VJ Day, manufacturers staged individual premieres, most lavish of which were the annual GM Motoramas that toured across the country.

This year, with competition back on a feverishly hot basis after sales slumped on ’56 models, car-makers agreed the time was ripe to whet buyers’ appetites anew with a 1957 National Automobile Show that would bring all makes under one roof in a gigantic sales promotion effort.

The show is going to unveil some major styling changes with which makers hope to catch the buyer’s fancy. Perhaps the most striking visually is the switch to four headlights by a few models. Others have dual light “treatments” with parking lenses enlarged and rearranged to give a four-lamp impression. Tail fins are even more accentuated and you’ll see thinner tops (less bend down the sides) and more glass. And the 14-inch wheel makes its appearance on a majority of the cars.

This model year may see a fade-out for the “longer-and-lower” pitch. Most ’57 machines are lower, which helps create a feeling that they’re longer, but actually lengths are about the same.

The industry’s biggest change is not going to be readily apparent to an average spectator. That is Chevrolet’s new fuel injection system, which offers faster acceleration, greater engine efficiency and other advantages.

Show time is likely to find the sales-division gang with a fine case of butterflies. They’ll have to fill out the price tags and virtually everyone in the industry agrees that a boost is certain for the new models.

New York City’s Coliseum, not yet a year old, is quite an attraction in itself. Decoration for the auto show will be at a minimum, with the directors relying on the beauty of the showrooms and the cars to please aesthetically-minded customers. Sculptures of the official show symbol will be found throughout the halls, however. The symbol is a gold linear outline of an auto emblazoned with the show’s theme, America On The Move, in red-orange letters, accented by seven turquoise triangles. Each booth will have its own motif, of course.

Eight years ago New York’s city fathers conceived the idea of a structure designed specifically for expositions and conventions and trade shows. The towering building at the southwest tip of Central Park opened last April 28 with an international car show, a photographic fair and a stamp exhibition. In the months since, the Coliseum has done well in living up to its billing as the exposition capital of the world.

Four exhibition floors contain nine acres of display area for anything from a canceled 3-cent stamp to a 17,000-lb. molding machine brought in for a plastics show. Offices occupy the 20-story tower connected to the exhibition section. The $35,000,000 structure presents the clean, straight face of modern architecture. There are no windows in the show halls but 46,000 fluorescent lamps make it daylight inside.

The Coliseum looks out on Columbus Circle, a small park centered on a high stone column. At the top stands a statue of an early-day travel expert, Christopher Columbus, perhaps watching the big doings out of the corner of his eye.

This location is one of the Coliseum’s best features. It sits virtually in the geographic center of Manhattan. Eighth Avenue and Broadway intersect at Columbus Circle and the exhibition building runs from 58th to 60th streets. Three subway systems and four major public bus lines converge on the building from all directions, all parts of the city.

In its long and hop-scotch history, the National Automobile Show has moved only twice. It all started back in 1900 when the year-old Automobile Club of America, swelling with membership, decided to do something spectacular and ended up sponsoring the first horseless carriage show in Madison Square Garden, then at Madison Avenue and 25th Street.

This first exhibition was the liveliest of any of the 41 shows to date. Around the edge of the Garden’s floor, decked out in pale green carpets, went a 1/8-mile wooden track for demonstration runs that included an obstacle course. Up on the roof of the Garden was a rickety 200-foot ramp for climbing and braking demonstrations that gave spectators—to say nothing of the daring drivers—a real thrill. At that historic show, steam carriages dominated among some 300 vehicles, followed closely by electrics. Gasoline jobs were a poor third in number of entries.

The ’03 show was under the auspices of the Automobile Manufacturers Association, which still is the sponsor. Later the show was moved to Grand Central Palace next to the railroad terminal of the same name. Now it has found its way to the Coliseum. But the purpose never changed: to show off proudly what new miracles the industry has wrought.

Some notable innovations have been introduced to the public at the exhibitions and several major trends first were noted at the National Show.

Back in ’03 a scribe of the times told of his surprise to find that this new vehicle had some character of its own and no longer looked like a buggy without a horse. Three years earlier it was evident that the old tiller was shuffling off to oblivion and a thing called a steering wheel was coming in. Later came four-wheel brakes, the planetary transmission, “operated with a hand lever,” the gear shift on the steering column and headlights faired into the fenders—all now hailed as “modern” automobile developments.

Shows of the 1930′s were noted for a certain lack of restraint after a ban against displaying anything non-automotive was erased. Car men huddled to discuss what people would like to look at along with autos. The answer was obvious. Out came bare knees, low-cut gowns, shapely lasses clad in not much doing playlets and dances around the cars, and even a lineup of “golden girls.” Some industry people figured they were lucky the war came because by 1941 crowds were ogling a nightgowned blonde going to bed in the back seat of a sedan—but no one was paying much attention to the car.

For this 42d automobile show, manufacturers are concentrating on cars. There’ll be no funny business in the displays. The association, however, has fielded a stage show that is billed as a musical spectacular. The revue will be presented by a company of singers and dancers, with each performance lasting 40 minutes. First show of the day begins at 2 p.m., with the rest spaced out until closing time.

That all effort is going into artful presentation of commercial merchandise is indicated by one of the show rules prohibiting futuristic or dream cars. Only production models can be shown, although some new lines may radiate a future-in-the-present atmosphere. One car, for instance, began life as a dream model last January but by show time will have become a production rig.

All but one of the 17 American-made cars will be in the show. The absentee is Packard, which recently went through a wringer of financial difficulties before tying up with the Curtiss-Wright Corporation for needed support.

For several weeks it was questionable whether there would be any 1957 Packard at all. Then, after the C-W agreement, Harold E. Churchill emerged as the new Studebaker-Packard chief and announced that a new model was on the way. He placed the introduction date in mid-January, too late for the National Show. So company officials decided to fill the exhibition areas assigned to both their car lines with Stude models.

Nine makes—Buick, Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford, Mercury, Nash, Oldsmobile, Plymouth and Studebaker—will be displayed on the 56,958-square-foot second floor of the Coliseum. The third floor of 48,182 square feet will have the other seven brands—Cadillac, Chrysler, Continental, De Soto, Hudson, Lincoln and Pontiac (plus the Packard space). Eleven truck makers will be represented on the first floor.

On the day the show makes its bow (Saturday, December the doors will open to the public at noon. Opening time all other days will be 11 a.m., with closing-down time every night at 11. Admission prices are 90 cents for adults, 45 cents for children. •

Homes That Glow in the Dark (Feb, 1947)

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Homes That Glow in the Dark

Modern lighting adopts fluorescence to achieve harmony of illumination with architectural design and decor Lighting for the modern home can be beautiful as well I as scientifically correct. Fluorescent lighting makes all this possible now; and gone forever are the days when fluorescent fixtures caused kitchen, bathroom, or living room to look like a hospital.

Fluorescent lighting is only 10 years old, but it has emerged today, after intensive wartime development, as the key to a new approach to a long-range problem: how to keep America’s vision up to par.

Fluorescent lamps themselves have taken on new shapes and forms—complete circles and thin, long cylinders instead of the familiar fat tubes—but all provide illumination in the same way. Electric current applied to a mercury vapor inside the tube creates ultraviolet rays. The interior of the tube is coated with phosphors (crystals that give off visible light when exposed to invisible radiation) and the tube glows when the ultraviolet rays strike the phosphors.

Color helps make the home Fluorescent lamps provide greater color control than do filament lamps, a valuable characteristic now that color is fully recognized as an important factor in environment, daytime effects are reproduced with fluorescent lamps; materials retain their true daytime shades under their glow.

New fluorescent fixtures have been designed to harmonize with their surroundings. Whole walls are made luminous. Slender fluorescent tubes behind concealed strips keep lighting elements in scale with design and permit dramatic decorative effects. Floor and table lamps, designed to fit individual furniture groupings, combine circular fluorescent and filament lamps to provide the correct light for reading, or the subdued level that goes With polite conversation.

SUPER Supermarket (Feb, 1947)

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SUPER Supermarket

Painless marketing has arrived for the housewives of Ridge wood, N. J., where the Grand Union store is trying out a spectacular new self-service gadget called Food-O-Mat. In simplest terms, Food-O-Mat works on the principle of the familiar paper-cup dispenser: take out one item, and another slides or rolls down an inclined metal ramp to take its place. There’s a return slot below each display for the use of congenital mind-changers.

Housewives applaud Food-O-Mat’s time- and step-saving features. Clerks approve the ease with which stock can be kept shipshape, with no need for overtime display work. Owners are happy over the fact that they sell five times as much per square foot as the conventional grocery.

“Bowling Ball” Lumbering (Nov, 1953)

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“Bowling Ball” Lumbering

Crashing through an area to be cleared, these giant steel balls can topple timber like tenpins—at 50 acres an hour.

BY JAMES NEVIN MILLER

SCORES of times every day in an area near Hungry Horse, Montana, a man-made hurricane takes place. Hurtling through heavy timber with relentless force and a crash heard for miles, a giant steel ball, as big as a garage, snaps trees two feet thick as easily as if they were match sticks. Known as the “ball that saves millions,” this is a revolutionary method for clearing timber in record-breaking time and far cheaper on a large scale, than anything else ever known. The ball, weighing 4-1/2 tons, and measuring 8 feet in diameter, is pulled through the timber by two powerful diesel tractors traveling several hundred feet apart. Two, three and sometimes more trees are grabbed and “bitten” by a tenacious loop of cable. In a matter of seconds they are either uprooted or broken off. The ball rolls on a 6-inch shaft and in- I creases the efficiency of the snagging operation by keeping the cable approximately four feet off the ground, thereby preventing hangups on stumps and giving better leverage in pulling down trees.

The men who developed the spectacular clearing method and are using it to snag down timber on the steep mountain slopes and valley floor of the Flathead River’s south fork, are Wixson and Trisdale, commercial contractors of Redding, Calif.

Basically, the giant ball is a refinement on another new clearing method used in 1951 by the two contractors, in which pairs of diesel tractors are used to drag up to 400 feet of 2-inch wire cable through the timbered areas, snagging down all of the trees and brush caught in cable loop.

Working largely in burned over areas, the contractors ‘found the cable snagging method so efficient that they were able to complete about 95 percent of their joint contract for clearing 7,210 acres of land. However, land to be cleared under new contracts—6,840 to Wixson and 7,855 acres to Trisdale—was mostly in logged over areas. Recognizing that the cable would tend to hang up on the stumps left by the loggers, Wixson and Trisdale came up with the idea of using the 8-foot diameter steel balls to keep the cable high enough above the ground to prevent snagging on stumps.

Working on fairly level ground under ideal conditions, one pair of tractors pulling only one ball snagged down all of the trees on a heavily timbered area of nearly 200 acres in four hours. Average daily production for one pair of tractors and one ball working under varying conditions, including steep hillsides and marshy ground, has been close to 100 acres per 8-hour shift.

A contributing factor to the success of the new method has been the use of winches on the tractors. By using up to 900 feet of 1-1/4-inch cable on special winches on each tractor, the two tractor operators are able to circle a large stand of timber and reel out a total of 1,800 feet of cable as they bulldoze their way through the woods.

When the operators reach the end of the cable on their winches, they anchor the tractors against trees or stumps and start reeling the cable in on the two winches. As the cable and ball crash through the timber all of the trees caught in the loop of cable are uprooted and felled.

TV Tape Takes to Road (Jun, 1960)

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TV Tape Takes to Road

Have you noticed “live” location pictures on your TV screen lately? It’s probably mobile videotape.

WHEN Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev visited a farm and meat packing plant at Coon Rapids, Iowa, CBS-TV newsmen knew they had a scoop. No, they weren’t the only ones there. The other two networks also had plans to use videotape coverage of the event on their newscasts, since tape requires no processing time and yields “live” fidelity pictures. But only the CBS-contracted Giantview mobile videotape unit was able to follow Mr. K. as he ambled around farm and packing plant.

The Giantview unit can capture broadcast quality pictures on videotape at almost any location. What does this mean to the TV producer and director? Cut costs, for one thing. What does it mean to you, the viewer? Good, authentic backgrounds that studio-anchored cameras cannot get. A director can shoot westerns, commercials, sports events, etc., at remote locations, check the results on the spot, and reshoot those scenes which do not satisfy him without having to wait for a film run.

On board the truck are an Ampex videotape recorder with cue and erase channels, editing facilities, four TV cameras which are electronically switched and mixed, audio recording facilities with six microphone channels, lighting equipment, monitors, cables, a complete servicing shop and radio-telephone.

TAM 8

2010-07-08T00:36:17Z

I’m going to be in Las Vegas at TAM 8 for the next couple of days so posting will be a bit light. (Lack of posts last week was due to a delightfully incapacitating case of strep throat.)

If anyone else on the site is attending and wants to meet up for a drink, drop me a line

HOW’S YOUR “AROUSAL”? (Feb, 1947)

2010-07-07T07:08:30Z

HOW’S YOUR “AROUSAL”?

Now the psychograph shows your reaction to the advertisements A successful advertisement is one with immediate emotional impact. Ad men have long sought a scientific means to gauge that impact before releasing a million-dollar campaign. Let’s say a new perfume is to be launched. Its name is an all-important selling factor. The copy-writer thinks “Uh-huh” would be a provocative name; the manufacturer leans to the crisper “Yup”; the creator to a forthright “Yes.” Before the psychograph was dreamed up by a couple of Northwestern University psychologists, the final choice would probably have represented the victory of one hunch over another. If the hunch happened not to “arouse” the buying public, the whole campaign would be a flop.

You’re excited; what happens?

The psychograph, or Electropsychograph, as inventors Walter Wesley and Emil Ranseen call it, is a device patterned after the galvanometer. It combines the methods of psychology and electrical engineering to measure a person’s “typical” reactions to sense stimuli: with an advertisement, sight is the sense stimulated; in the case of the mythical perfume, the reaction to the scent itself could be gauged.

Specifically, the psychograph was designed to determine “arousal” by measuring the autonomic reaction of the sweat glands in the palm of one’s hand. When you get excited, your palms become noticeably damp; but long before your emotion reaches this obvious stage, and on far less stimulation, the sweat glands in your palm begin to function. Their activity decreases the permeability of the gland cells to charged ions; which is another way of saying that it increases the resistance to passage of electrical current. The change in permeability is minute, but the inventors of the psychograph are sure they made the instrument sensitive enough to measure it. The equipment automatically records the degree of change on a graph (see cut).

After the machine has done its job of recording, a psychologist conducts an interview with the testee, to determine whether the arousal is “positive” or “negative” as far as an ad or product is concerned.

When cars have a life expectancy of 1,000,000 miles… (Mar, 1955)

2010-07-07T07:08:19Z

When cars have a life expectancy of 1,000,000 miles…

chances are that research with electron diffraction will have helped make this come true

•The General Electric electron diffraction instrument is versatile and easy to operate. The unit consists of vacuum system, electron gun, power supply and complete camera assembly — all the components required to produce both reflection and transmission photographs from a wide variety of samples.

This instrument can perform numerous tasks for industry. In chemistry, for example, it can be used to study catalytic action … to analyze surface contamination as well as foreign particles. In metallurgy, it can help in the selection of corrosion-resistant materials . . . can be used to examine alloy structures and pigments. And physicists, too, find many applications for G-E electron diffraction.

Get further information from the G-E x-ray representative in your locale … or write X-Ray Department, General Electric Company, Milwaukee 1, Wisconsin, for Pub. TT34.

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